We want to talk to you! The SolarWinds User Experience (UX) team is responsible for designing features and products that are easy to use, useful, and efficient for our users. The most important part of that process is your feedback.

Users who participate in virtual feedback sessions might spend an hour getting an early look at new features and products in development, or maybe we’ll ask you to show us how you use a critical path feature in your environment. We want to talk to you about what you like, what you don’t like, what’s missing, what’s hard to use or what’s just plain inefficient. Who knows? You might even get a sneak peek of an upcoming release!

Of course you’ll be rewarded for your support of the SolarWinds community. If you are selected to participate in a feedback session, you’ll receive points for use in the thwack store. Score yourself some swag and boast about your opportunity to lend your ideas for your favorite products.

If you are interested in signing up to participate in a UX session, please sign up for our user database and we will contact you if an opportunity arises!

The wait is finally over. SolarWinds Network Topology Mapper 2.0 Release Candidate is now available to all existing NTM customers under active maintenance. This is your chance to have your hands on the newest functionality before it is available to all. You can find the RC binaries for download into your SolarWinds customer portal.

The NTM 1.0 and 1.1 release introduced saving of credentials into the Map file. But it did not have the flexibility to store the credentials within the application for re-use. In NTM 2.0 we sought to rectify that issue by including a new shared credential storage within the application. Now, when you add a new credential, the credential is automatically added into the shared credential database as long as “Show Credential in new Network Discovery Scans” is ticked. This function will ensure that you're entered credential in stored internally and can be recalled when wanted.

To add the saved credential into the credential table for scanning. Simply click on the Add Credential button, choose your saved credential from the drop-down list, and hit the Add button.

If there is a need to delete a credential from the shared credential store. First add the credential into the Credential table, click on modifying credential button and uncheck “Show Credential in new Network Discovery Scans”

Selecting the credential and hitting Remove Credential, will ensure the selected credential will not participate in the discovery scan, but is still stored in the shared credential store.

MICROSOFT HYPER-V MAPPING

With NTM 1.0, we introduced mapping of VMware guest OS’s to the host. NTM 2.0 extends the virtual mapping functionality by scanning your Hyper-V infrastructure and giving you a snapshot of how your Hyper-V infrastructure is laid out.

Together with VMware and Hyper-V network maps you can now produce a visual documentation of your virtualized network and produce an accurate analysis of the resource distribution.

Create your Hyper-V map by entering valid WMI credentials for your Hyper-V hosts into the Network Discovery wizard. There are two new node roles created into the product, one for Hyper-V host and Hyper-V guest for making them easily distinguishable. Also, virtualized links are presented as dotted links from the host to the guests making them distinguishable from Layer 2 and Layer 3 link connections.

SCHEDULE EXPORT OF NTM MAP TO NETWORK ATLAS

NTM Discovery can be scheduled for a single run or to run on a recurring basis. Using the same NTM scheduling functionality you can now have updated NTM maps exported to Network Atlas. Network Atlas is a tool for creating custom maps and network diagrams, for more on Network Atlas and its capabilities check out this video.

Take advantage of recurring NTM discovery and mapping functionality for your desired environment and bring it up into Network Atlas/NPM. If NTM identifies a new device on your environment, this update will be sent across to Network Atlas (depending on the schedule set). You as an Admin have the power to decide if this new node detected would take the form of an Orion node or not.

8. Continue with the Next button, evaluate the information entered into the Summary Page and Discover

The next time you log into Network Atlas, you will be notified of an updated map from NTM. (Both Applications NTM and NA should be open for the update to populate)

P.S: Please make sure you have the latest Network Atlas build (Version 1.10.1.29 and after) for this feature to work

MODIFY NODE DETAILS

I got asked quite a bit about how to change the node names or node roles in the Network Topology Mapper. While NTM V1 did not have the option to change the node role created by the application. We thought this would be a cool feature to add into this release. So, here we are NTM 2.0 gives you the power to change the values of 3 fields into the Node Details properties page.

FIELD

DESCRIPTION

USER ACTION

NODE NAME

Alias of device system name, used to identify and display a device on the map

Rename

PRIMARY NODE ROLE

Device role identification

Choose from a list of pre-defined node roles

PRIMARY IP ADDRESS

Polled Management IP Address

Choose from identified IP Addresses

We have also gone ahead and given you the ability to manually draw a connection between two devices, with the creation of Connect Devices button on to the NTM toolbar

FIPS 140-2 COMPLIANCY

More and more industries require data protection through security measures such as cryptography. For these customers where their Windows machines run in FIPS Mode, NTM makes sure it compatible to this environment and compliances to the FIPS 140-2 standards.

BUGS

Like any release. We have fixed bugs which were reported after the release V1.0.10

We hope this release will give you more flexibility and make your experience with NTM better.

WE WANT YOUR COMMENTS !

Be sure to check out theNetwork Topology Mapper RC Grouphere on thwack. If there are any known issues reported we will be putting it up there and will be happy to answer questions about the RC and features in the RC.

If you decide to install the RC binaries, you will be one of the first recipients of 2.0. Because you’ll be one of the first, Product management and Engineering will be actively monitoring your posts and engage with you about any feedback you have. You can also raise a ticket to support about 2.0 RC and its fully supportable. Your feedback is important to us and we want to make sure your upgrade experience is a smooth one.

Tip: If you install the Release Candidate in your production environment and post to the Release Candidate forum about your upgrade experience we will award you 250 Thwack Points.

So, what are you waiting for ? Try out NTM 2.0 and let the feedback/comments flow !

October is panning out to be a very busy month for community. I will be at Interop New York the first week of October (come see me!), thwackCamp 2013 is happening October 8-11, then both MTorok and myself are heading to a conference put on by our platform vendor in late October. That being said, we thought taking a break from the quiz/product knowledge missions was par for the course. Don't worry, they'll make their return in November Without further ado, I present you with October's mission.

October's Mission

This month we have two activities. You can complete one or the other or both.

Task A:

The EOL Lookup feature is now available in the latest release of NCM 7.2. In order to make this feature as useful as possible, we are asking that you report any devices where our data is missing, incorrect, or the suggestions are misleading. Reply to this thread with your feedback for 1,000 points. This is non-repeatable, so compile all of your feedback into one reply. Also, if applicable, please provide the information in this form: Device type, System description, end-of-sale date, end-of-support date, Vendor EoL statement URL.

SolarWinds solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base in the THWACK® online community. More than 130,000 members are here to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly contribute to our product development process. Learn more today by joining.

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